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Cyril Edwards and his wife Jan with paramedic Ray O’Brien who played a vital role in Cyril’s recovery. – Picture by Nathalie CraigJUST four days after suffering a severe and debilitating stroke, Cyril Edwards was back working at The Oyster Hut in Tea Gardens.

With this week being Brain Awareness Week the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) has pinpointed the Pindimar resident as an exceptional recovery case.

A stroke can often result in years of rehabilitation and significant lifestyle changes but watching Mr Edwards busily shuck oysters he seems in perfect health.

Saving Mr Edward’s life began with the snappy response of Tea Gardens paramedics who had been specially trained in a stroke management course.

“Within two hours of my son phoning the ambulance I was being treated in John Hunter Hospital,” Mr Edwards said.

His “incredible recovery” was also a result of research by HMRI Professor Chris Levi and his team.

“Chris Levi and his team were waiting for me in the emergency department, they explained the details of the stroke research and the clot-busting therapy,” he said.

“My wife and I agreed to proceed with it immediately.”

The treatment began reducing his stroke symptoms within an hour and by the next morning feeling was returning to his arms and legs.

By the very next day he was walking unassisted.

“It wasn’t until I got up and began walking around the stroke ward that I realised just how big of a deal it all was,” he said.

“All the other men who had similar strokes to mine were physically immobile, that was when it really hit home.”

Professor Levi said “clot-busting therapy” for acute stroke was one of the few effective treatments and by far the most powerful, but could only be delivered in the first hours after the onset of the stroke.

The HMRI is conducting rural pre-hospital acute stroke triage (rural PAST) project, looking at a new system of care for rural stroke patients with clot busting drug treatment.

“Cyril is part of the rural PAST study and we are delighted with his outcome and his great progress,” Professor Levi said.

This story Administrator ready to work first appeared on Guiyang Sauna Net.